Rolling Forecasts: The Engine of Agile Finance | Ep. 8

Olivia

Alright, here we go—welcome back to another episode of FP&A Done Right! I'm Olivia, and joining me is my always-competitive, spreadsheet-loving co-host Ryan. Today, we’re digging into rolling forecasts. If you just yawned, I promise—stick with us. This is one of those shifts that actually makes finance more interesting.

Ryan

Absolutely, Olivia. You know, for years I was stuck with these annual budgets that felt like, well, using a paper map to drive across country. You start your trip, everything looks great on Day One, and then by Day Three you’re lost in the woods ‘cause the roads have changed. Annual budgets fall apart just as fast—by Q2 you’re already guessing, right?

Olivia

Honestly, yes! It’s wild to me now, but earlier in my CFO days, we went into a product launch all jazzed up—and then a competitor blindsided us with a huge marketing campaign midyear. Because we had this rigid static budget, it took weeks to shuffle funds and get approval from layers of management. By the time we responded, the buzz—and our momentum—was gone.

Ryan

I can relate. Static budgets are slow, they're siloed, and they just can't keep up. And, like, they’re based on assumptions you made months before the fiscal year even started. I mean, when was the last time the world waited for your business plan to play out exactly as predicted?

Olivia

Exactly! That’s where rolling forecasts come in. Instead of locking your view for twelve months, you extend your horizon—maybe by twelve, eighteen, even twenty-four months—and you update regularly. It’s like, every time you close one month or quarter, you add a new one at the end. So your view of the future keeps moving forward—it’s always fresh, never static.

Ryan

And the best part is, you’re pulling in real-time operational data, not just finance numbers sitting in some dusty back office. You combine that with scenario modeling—best case, worst case, base case—so you’re ready to pivot. And honestly, once you see it in action, you wonder how you ever lived without it.

Olivia

Ryan, you remember how I always say, “Triple-check your numbers... just in case the universe decides math gets weird?” With rolling forecasts, you’re double- and triple-checking, but it’s built into your process. The tool does the heavy lifting, so you’re spending your time understanding the story behind the numbers, not just rekeying them.

Ryan

Speaking of tools, let’s talk about the tech making rolling forecasts possible. Cloud-based platforms—like Workday Adaptive Planning—are game changers. Instead of emailing around monster spreadsheets, you’ve got everyone from finance to HR to sales plugging their numbers into one system, automated dashboards updating in real time. It’s, uh, almost like running a fantasy football league, but with way more at stake!

Olivia

Nice analogy. And for me, the cross-functional part is massive. Instead of finance being walled off, you’ve got input from operations, sales, HR—everyone. At my old firm, once we switched to rolling forecasts and these self-serve dashboards, people actually wanted to join the budgeting calls. I know, shocker. But when you can see your influence on the numbers and adjust on the fly, it becomes a team sport, not a solo act.

Ryan

Totally. I’ll never forget the first time I helped digitize forecasting at a Fortune 500. Before we had buy-in from sales and ops, it was like herding cats. Once they saw real-time data in the dashboards—variance analysis done in seconds, not days—they were all in. It broke down those old silos. But it did take top-down support to make it stick. Executives have to champion the shift, or people slip back to the comfort of spreadsheets.

Olivia

And the real-world benefits are huge. Listen to how an investment firm implemented rolling, eight-quarter forecasts using Workday Adaptive Planning—now their strategic decisions are based on accurate, fresh KPIs, and they chopped a week off their annual budgeting cycle. Or take an entertainment complex—stuck in spreadsheet chaos before, and after switching to Workday they could finally gain insights into revenue, activity types, and actually trust their numbers. That’s transformative.

Ryan

A telecom firm is a great example too. By automating rolling forecasts, they cut out the manual errors, handled multiple currencies and tax scenarios, and had more time to focus on “what-if” planning. Less fixing broken links, more thinking strategically. It’s a win all around.

Olivia

Let’s pull it all together: rolling forecasts aren’t just about better numbers, they actually move finance from being the “scorekeeper” to the business driver. There’s research for this—Workday’s CFO Indicator Report found that teams using rolling forecasts are 94% effective at business analysis versus just 50% for static models. That’s nearly double the impact.

Ryan

Those numbers say it all. Rolling forecasts make your analysis not just more effective, but actually actionable. They give you superpowers: robust cash flow forecasting, scenario modeling—you can run best, base, and worst cases and know what moves to make. Risk management gets sharper, and you can reallocate resources on the fly to where they matter most.

Olivia

And it’s not just theory—real companies are seeing this play out. A bio tech company, for instance, switched to Workday Adaptive Planning and immediately saw way fewer errors, more accuracy, and efficiencies across their entire FP&A process. Their teams can now make decisions off current cash flow—no more waiting for the next spreadsheet update from five different offices.

Ryan

You know what this reminds me of, Olivia? Fantasy football—hear me out. When you use rolling forecasts with driver-based models, you’re a manager reacting to injuries or new info every week. You don’t cling to last season’s lineup, right? You pivot, you optimize, you go for the win based on what’s happening now. That’s agile finance.

Olivia

It’s a great analogy, actually—even though I still think in chess metaphors. The point stands: rolling forecasts make finance dynamic. You trade the static, rearview-mirror approach for something proactive and strategic. That’s where you really make an impact, not just balance the books.

Ryan

Yeah, and it’s the kind of change you can actually start small with. Get executive buy-in, choose the right tech, and, maybe most importantly, bring the rest of the business along. That’s when the magic happens.